Category Archives: 7 Posts in 7 Days

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Looking out my window… cloudy. We had a little bit of sun but it got cold again.

I am thinking… about how I will structure my classwork this summer. I have an online class on interpersonal communications

I am thankful… that the Warriors annihilated the Cavs in the NBA championships. I’m a Bay Area native and I hate all Cleveland sports teams so I’m positively gleeful. This also means that my boys have avenged their loss in the championships last year. 🙂

One of my favorite things… clean sheets. I just made my bed with fresh sheets and am loving it. (It’s laundry day for Daniel and me.)

I am wearing… a long-sleeved berry colored shirt from Old Navy and jeans from Kohl’s.

I am creating… this entry. I turned my last PowerPoint presentation in last night and am DONE with everything for the quarter.

Today is the last day of the challenge to write 7 posts in 7 days. I decided to only do the Five Favorites meme at Moxie Wife as one of the entries and do a couple other small link-ups, which has meant that I’ve had to write two posts on Thursdays and Sundays to keep the 7 Quick Takes and The Simple Woman’s Daybook separate.

So…

It had been probably 30 years since I had a shamrock shake from McDonalds and my Twitter has been full of people talking about having one. Given that I am an adult and can consent to purchase and consume one, I thought “why not?” and headed over to my local McDonalds to try one.

My take: a waste of $3.

Seriously, I’m a huge fan of any thing mint-flavored so I thought I’d like this. The thing tasted like toothpaste and for the caloric load, I could have consumed 3/4 of a container of Talenti Mediterranean Mint gelato. I’m also a bit afraid to go online and look at the ingredient list after seeing a sign about this.

I’m wearing my Online Debate Team shirt at the moment and I just had to referee a cat fight in a group on Facebook where I’m one of the admins so this subject seemed appropriate.

I try not to pick fights… too often. (Maybe once every few years and only on subjects where I’m pretty confident that I’m right.) It’s not worth my time (especially these days) and I know I hate it when people pick fights with me. Any comments left on this blog that are nasty go right into the spam folder and the offending party has their I.P. banned.

Last summer, I saw a post on a blog with which I disagreed so I refuted her points. That irritated her and she waged an all-out war on me on her blog and in my comment box where she created new identities and I.P.’s using a proxy server. A pastor’s wife friend of mine dared to defend me so she went after my friend on my friend’s blog and in comment box the same way. After praying about the situation, I decided to be the bigger person and called a truce because sitting back and eating popcorn while watching her self-destruct was not a godly way to handle the situation.

Why am I bringing it up (other than her bringing it up on her blog nastily a few months ago)? Well… I believe there are some rules we should be following in how we disagree online.

[+] Try to remember that the person you disagree with is a human being and not a disembodied voice whose text is appearing on your screen. I try to remind myself of this when I read someone online with whom I disagree and/or find to be an utter twit. As much as I might find what they say to be stupid, they have as much of a right to hold that opinion as I do to hold mine.

[+] If you’re going to refute something that someone has written, do so charitably. You can disagree as much as you want; but if you’re sticking a link to the original post, understand that it might get back to the original poster that you’ve written it and they may not be happy. Also, quote the whole piece in blockquotes so your readers can see the context in which they said things. It’s only fair. Lastly, try not to speak of the poster derisively. You are trying to refute their ideas, not their existence.

[+] If you’re disagreeing with someone on Facebook, remember that your conversation is visible for the entire world to see. I’ve seen people act like jerks on Facebook and I kind of wonder if they’re oblivious to the fact that everyone in that group can see the conversation. Ditto when it’s on someone’s wall.

[+] If you claim to be Christian, remember that you are representing Jesus to non-Christians. Another one of my pet peeves is Christians acting like bullies in places where non-Christians can interact with them. It sends the message that God is OK with people behaving shamefully in His name, regardless of whether God *is* in fact OK with this. (Spoiler: He isn’t.) Are people going to be attracted to Jesus if you call other people names? As a convert, I can tell you the answer is “NO!!!!” If nothing else, it took *longer* for me to come to faith in Christ because of the way I had seen some people act who professed to be Christians.

[+] If you’re going to post something in which you disagree with someone else, pray before you hit the “publish” or “submit” button. It hasn’t stopped me from completely putting my foot in my mouth but it at least gives me to think about it first.

I’m feeling really twitchy about a family situation (I can’t discuss it publicly out of respect for that family member) so I’m up posting and I thought I’d listen to some Bach to calm me down.

For those who don’t know, I’m a classically trained pianist and vocalist. I rarely play piano publicly anymore and I don’t have opportunity to sing much because of Daniel. To be clear, I’m not a soloist — I’m one of those people who loves to lend support to a community choral group. Bach is considered “the master” and it was pretty much expected when I participated in Guild Auditions that one of my Baroque pieces would be something by Bach.

One

Concerto for Two Pianos C major BWV 1061 (Vivace) This is the third movement of the concerto and it’s a fugue. If I could, I would have this as the ring tone for my cell phone. I liken the piece to children playing tag with the way that the theme jumps from person to person and instrument to instrument. This particular video does a good job of showing it.

Two

“Jesus bleibet meine Freude” BWV 147 The English for this one is “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” and it should be familiar to many people. It was my first vocal solo (singing soprano with my friend Joyce doing second soprano and my friend Sunitha singing alto — absolutely terrifying for me but so incredibly wonderful) and it was also the processional at my wedding. I have probably 5 versions of it in my iTunes and on my “Bach and Baroque” playlist.

Three

Prelude and Fugue No.12 in F Minor BWV 881 from “The Well-Tempered Clavier” This pianist does it well but my favorite version is from Windham Hill’s album “The Bach Variations” with Philip Aaberg playing it. I’m biased because he actually played it for a concert at the Montana Synod Assembly in 2006. I swear every bone in my body relaxed during it.

Four

Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Sleepers Awake) BWV 645 My church choir director in high school was one of my professors in college. (I sang in the Women’s Chorale for 5 quarters and she was my conductor for 3 of them.) This is a piece that I remember her playing as an offertory when I was home from college.

Five

“Little” Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 This is the piece that was used in Music Appreciation in high school to explain the structure of a fugue. It’s a pretty well-known piece and I chose this particular video to show you how insanely intricate it is. One of the reasons that Bach is considered “the master” for many people is that his music sounds so simple when in reality, it takes a great deal of skill to make it sound that way. Polyphony for the win!

I first learned of the issue in college and was inspired when I saw Gary Haugen of International Justice Mission speak at Urbana 2000. I’ve raised money for them and used to be on their mailing list. (Now that things are more settled for us, I think I need to get back on it.) As I’ve read about various people’s experiences with the issue, I’ve discovered that there are many who were completely fired up by that talk 13 years ago. I think the thing that really hit home for a lot of us was that he talked about the number 20,000 (the number of students at the conference) and how it relates to the issue worldwide. It was captivating enough that I remember almost every detail of that talk despite fighting bronchitis at the time. (All of us came home from the conference with respiratory ailments of some nature.)

Anyway, I challenge all of you to learn more about the issue and to watch the video above.

My son Daniel James is named after Jon’s great-uncle Daniel (a WWII hero) and my father James. If Daniel had been a girl, he would have been Kathleen Moira after my mom (Kathleen) and Mary, the Mother of God. We made this decision on the second day of Jon’s trip to visit me for the first time in college and I know part of it was inspired by my aunt’s practice of giving her daughters the names of their great-grandmothers as their middle name.

I can’t remember what our second boy would be named but if we have another child and it’s a girl, she’ll be Hannah Grace. Hannah comes from Samuel’s mother Hannah who was strong in her faith. Grace is from one of my great-grandmothers. The other option for a girl would be Annika Leah with Annika being a name we like and Leah being another of my great-grandmothers.

So Lent starts next week and I’m trying to come up with ideas for my Lenten discipline this year. In the past, I have…

-given up meat (and ended up vegetarian for 5 years after)
-given up chocolate
-given up soda
-given up swearing (which lasted all of one day though to be fair, I was pregnant)
-taken on the making of afghan squares
-taken on blogging about faith daily (2012)
-taken on blogging about religious music daily (2013)

I know! I’ll take a page from Fr. James Martin, S.J. and let someone else determine my Lenten discipline this year! Rafflecopter for the opportunity is below. Winner will be chosen next Tuesday at 12:00 PST and notified by email. You need to give me my discipline by 11:59 PST that evening.

I should probably clarify that there are a couple limits:

1.) I’m pre-diabetic so I *have* to eat — no surviving on bread and water.
2.) Assume that whatever I do needs to be Daniel-friendly.
3.) It cannot break any commandments or rules of the church.